Chapter 516
The Demon Sword, Thousand-Person Blood.
A legendary demon sword passed down through generations in the murim, said to take the form of a rusted iron sword.
However, if offered the blood of a thousand martial artists who have cultivated their Internal Energy,
it not only transforms into a demon sword powerful enough to shatter even the finest Divine Swords and Treasured Sabers but also grants its wielder mysterious abilities.
In the past, the Heavenly Blood Demon Emperor, who once owned Thousand-Person Blood,
attempted to lure orthodox and unorthodox martial artists to Great Valley Mountain to slaughter them all at once in order to awaken the sword.
But he failed to gather the blood of a thousand martial artists and was ultimately killed by the Orthodox and Unorthodox Allied Forces, who saw through his scheme.
'No, at this scale, they could've awakened dozens of Thousand-Person Bloods.'
Considering the period during which the Sword Tomb became known, the number of third-rate martial artists who have died here would be at least several thousand—perhaps even over ten thousand.
There's no way they'd orchestrate something like this just to awaken a single Thousand-Person Blood.
'In that case, the Heavenly Human Cult must possess a large number of demon swords and opened the Sword Tomb to awaken them.'
When you think about it, the Heavenly Human Cult has devised an absurdly ingenious scheme.
If they openly slaughtered countless martial artists like the Heavenly Blood Demon Emperor did, they'd be branded Public Enemies of the Martial World.
But instead, they easily lured martial artists under the pretense of offering swords from the Sword Tomb and established the Eight Rules of the Sword Tomb to ensure no repercussions for killing them.
'I'll destroy this mechanism first.'
Most likely, all the blood flowing through this pipe is being used to awaken demon swords.
If I don't destroy it quickly, something terrible will undoubtedly happen.
But then—
Creak.
The sound of the iron gate opening echoed once more.
Bu Eun-seol immediately suppressed his presence and hid behind a pillar.
Squelch, squelch.
Three shadowy figures approached, their steps squelching through pools of blood.
Unlike the mask Bu Eun-seol wore, theirs were pitch-black Ghost-Faced Masks.
'They distinguish rank by mask color.'
The ones wearing black Ghost-Faced Masks
radiated an overwhelming Internal Power incomparable to that of Yeon Baek-ryang, the Human Sword whom Bu Eun-seol had dealt with earlier.
'How does a mere branch of a heretical sect have masters this strong?'
Of course, they weren't on the level of the Messenger of the Three Realms,
but they were far beyond what one would expect from a branch of some heretical sect based along the Yellow River.
"Come out."
The middle figure among the three Ghost-Faced Envoys scanned the surroundings and spoke coldly.
"We know you're hiding somewhere here. The moment someone enters this mechanism, the alarm bell rings."
Bu Eun-seol sighed inwardly.
'Was I too careless?'
If they went to the trouble of building a mechanism this massive, they would've installed security measures to match.
No matter how exceptional Bu Eun-seol's abilities were, he couldn't instantly identify every flaw in the mechanisms.
In the end, his intrusion had been detected by some hidden device.
'This comes first.'
Now that his presence had been exposed, it was only a matter of time before all the masters in this branch swarmed him.
So the first thing Bu Eun-seol needed to do wasn't fighting them.
Zzziiing.
Drawing upon his Internal Energy,
Swaaak!
he swung the demon sword at his waist and unleashed a barrage of Sword Qi.
Swoooosh!
The tangled network of pipes shattered, and thick blood began cascading down like a waterfall.
"That lunatic!"
The three black-masked envoys immediately rushed forward, attempting to surround Bu Eun-seol as he continued unleashing Sword Qi.
Swoooosh!
But the interior was filled with massive pillars supporting the ceiling, and blood was gushing in all directions.
Moreover, Bu Eun-seol darted between the pillars at full speed using Swift Shadowless, making it difficult for them to pin him down.
Drip.
Suddenly, the blood pouring from the pipes stopped in an instant.
Now, Bu Eun-seol's movements became clearly visible amidst the dwindling streams.
"There he is!"
Tap, tap, tap!
Having pinpointed his location, the black-masked envoys swiftly surrounded him in a triangular formation.
Slash, slash, slash!
In an instant, they unleashed hundreds of Sword Qi strikes.
Their techniques belonged to the Demonic Sword Arts, a rare Killing Sword style seldom seen in the murim.
Bu Eun-seol found himself instantly trapped by the storm of sword strikes.
But then—
Whoooosh!
With a strange Sound of Breaking Air, the barrage of sword strikes spun violently and reversed direction.
Iron Sword Thirteen Forms.
A Heaven-Transcending Art capable of instantly redirecting any form of force and returning it with even greater power.
Kwaaaah!
The reversed Sword Strokes transformed into a tempest of blade winds that tore through everything in their path.
"Fall back!"
The Black-Masked Lions scattered in panic as the sword strokes they had unleashed came surging back at them all at once.
Swish!
In that brief opening, Bu Eun-seol darted toward the exit.
Chiiing!
But even as his blade hacked into the closed gate, it only left deep gashes—the thick, reinforced iron door refused to split.
"Die!"
By then, the Black-Masked Lions had already regrouped and charged at Bu Eun-seol again, pouring forth their sword techniques.
This time, wary that he might deflect their attacks once more, they abandoned sword qi and instead swung wildly, aiming to cut directly into his flesh.
What's more, each of them wielded a different sword style, yet their movements flowed together with flawless precision—like a perfectly orchestrated Combined Attack Art.
'So the Heavenly Human Cult has a true sword master among them.'
Though the Heavenly Human Cult was infamous as a major heretical sect in the Martial World, its reputation stemmed from its bizarre and esoteric Art of Spells—not for producing swordsmen of this caliber.
Even if they had obtained a secret manual from the real Sword Tomb, harmonizing three entirely different sword styles into a seamless Combined Attack Art should have been impossible.
Meaning—a master of the sword, one who had reached the Summit of Mastery, had taken three exceptional sword techniques and unified them into this flawless cooperative form.
Clang-clang-clang-clang!
But ever since slaying Paeng Ryun, Bu Eun-seol's swordsmanship had ascended to unfathomable heights.
He effortlessly dismantled the Black-Masked Lions' assault, even as he studied their techniques.
'Their sword forms are impressive, but they haven't trained in them for long.'
Though their techniques were powerful and their stances intricate, their execution was riddled with openings—likely due to insufficient refinement.
Bu Eun-seol spotted these flaws instantly, easily identifying moments where he could have severed their necks.
'Since things have come to this... why not refine the Iron Sword Thirteen Forms further?'
His battle with Paeng Ryun had already pushed his Formless Heavenly Flow to new heights.
And now, posing as Seon-u Jin, he found himself entertaining the whimsical thought of evolving the Iron Sword Thirteen Forms to suit this identity.
"Ghk—!"
Eventually, stifled groans escaped the lips of the Black-Masked Lions as they stubbornly pressed their assault.
Forty moves had passed, and not a single thread of Bu Eun-seol's robes had been touched—while their own wounds only multiplied.
—He's not even using True Void right now. He's just practicing his swordplay.
The same realization dawned on the Black-Masked Lions, and they faltered, exchanging panicked glances before retreating momentarily.
They had finally grasped the truth: no matter how they surrounded him, their attacks were meaningless against someone of Bu Eun-seol's level.
Nod.
With a silent exchange of vicious intent, they seemed to hatch a scheme, nodding in unison.
Then, moving toward a massive pillar at the center—
Swish!
—they abruptly drove their swords into it with a sharp cry.
Grrrrr—
The ground trembled violently, as if struck by an earthquake.
BOOM!
A thunderous roar shook the chamber, and the interior began shaking uncontrollably.
'Don't tell me—'
Bu Eun-seol had forgotten one crucial fact.
The Heavenly Human Cult was not an ordinary Martial World sect—it was a cult organization.
And for such fanatics, achieving their goals mattered more than the lives of others... or even their own.
Crash—! THUD!
Coffins haphazardly suspended from the ceiling plummeted to the ground, and soon, the ceiling itself began to cave in.
"You destroyed the mechanism."
At Bu Eun-seol's words, the Black-Masked Lions let out low, mocking laughs.
"Exactly. There's no way you're leaving here alive!"
Realizing they stood no chance against Bu Eun-seol's martial prowess, they had triggered the collapse—choosing Mutual Destruction.
"Die!"
They lunged again, surrounding him to prevent escape as they unleashed another flurry of sword strokes.
'No time!'
WHOOSH!
Bu Eun-seol unleashed his internal power in an instant—
FWOOOSH!
—and an arctic blast of cold energy, capable of freezing even the sky itself, erupted from him.
At point-blank range, he had activated the Glacier Thousand Streams Art.
Crack—
Though their assault was fierce, the Black-Masked Lions only froze for a fraction of a second before breaking free.
But that fraction was all Bu Eun-seol needed—time enough to execute five forms.
Swish! SWIIISH!
A dazzling violet sword qi, radiant enough to illuminate the world, unfolded before their eyes.
The Ultra Fast Killing Sword—a technique that, at the Seasoned Realm, allowed for nine variations in an instant.
Once more, Nine Dragons Flashing Thunder unfolded.
Thud.
The heads of the Black-Faced Lions tumbled to the blood-soaked ground in an instant.
With a single strike, he had severed the necks of three swordsmen.
CRASH! BOOM!
Meanwhile, massive boulders continued to rain down ceaselessly from above.
Whoosh—
Bu Eun-seol, pushing Swift Shadowless to its limits with all his strength, poured five hundred years' worth of Internal Power into shattering the iron gate.
RUMBLE—
But in that moment, with a deafening roar, colossal boulders weighing tens of thousands of pounds began piling up around the gate.
Fwoosh!
He narrowly dodged the falling rocks, but it was already too late.
CRACKLE—
As if Taiping Mountain itself had collapsed entirely, boulders of unimaginable weight poured down endlessly over Bu Eun-seol's head.
There was no longer any space left to evade.
Harmonization.
Gazing at the massive boulders descending upon him, Bu Eun-seol recalled the time he had been trapped underground in the mechanism of Nine-Bend Mountain with Gongson Dan-a.
Back then, the two of them had fallen into a trap, and an enormous boulder—seemingly weighing tens of thousands of pounds—had plummeted toward them.
With no possible way to dodge, Bu Eun-seol had aligned the four forces within his body and unleashed the Power of Harmony to survive the crisis.
No. That method won't work now.
The Power of Harmony could only be used once.
Even if he unleashed Harmonization now, amidst this unending collapse of falling boulders, it would only hold back the avalanche for a brief moment.
And there was another problem.
Exerting the Power of Harmony caused the forces within his body to clash violently, threatening to tear him apart from the inside.
Back then, Bu Eun-seol had lost consciousness immediately after releasing Harmonization.
Had Gongson Dan-a not been there—had she not injected him with Water Spirit Energy—he would have already lost his life.
But now, I've obtained two additional forces, haven't I?
Thunder Essence Divine Qi and Water Essence Divine Qi.
Unlike before, Bu Eun-seol now possessed two of the Death God's powers.
A sliver of hope remained.
I can't unleash it all at once.
To survive this collapse, he couldn't simply expel Harmonization in a single burst.
He had to maintain the Power of Harmony around his body until the collapse ceased.
If he released it all immediately, he might block the first wave, but eventually, he would be buried beneath the crushing weight of the falling rocks.
CRACK—
Finally, hundreds of boulders cascaded down at once.
As they exerted overwhelming pressure, the power of Prajna Great Power instantly flared across Bu Eun-seol's body.
"HAAAH!"
Using that force, he perfectly aligned the energies surging within him and expelled them outward.
WHIIIR—
His body became enveloped in a radiant, multicolored brilliance, and the massive boulders that touched the light began melting away as if dissolving.
"Ghhh—!"
A groan escaped Bu Eun-seol's lips as he was swallowed by the radiance.
Maintaining the Power of Harmony around his body—rather than expelling it all at once—was anything but easy.
His entire body felt as if it were being torn apart, his skin splitting open.
Containing energies that no human body should ever withstand, his flesh began to break down.
CRUMBLE—
At last, the collapse seemed to stop—no more boulders fell.
RUMBLE...
By then, the entire mechanism had collapsed into a massive tomb of stone.
Bu Eun-seol, unable to escape the catastrophe, had been buried beneath the rubble, vanishing without a trace.
Had his life truly ended in such futility?
For a long while, the underground chamber was filled with nothing but swirling dust, so silent that the drop of a needle could be heard.
Zzzt— Crackle—
But then, from the pile of enormous boulders, a lightning-like flash flickered—
FWOOOOSH—
—before finally, a multicolored explosion of light erupted toward the ceiling.
In an instant, the heaps of stone in one corner vanished, leaving behind a perfectly rounded hollow space.
And standing there, battered beyond recognition, was a lone man.
Bu Eun-seol.
Even beneath the crushing weight of the falling rocks, he had not lost consciousness—he had endured, maintaining the Power of Harmony.
And when the collapse finally ceased, he had expelled that power to break free.
Drip— drip—
His robes were drenched in blood, his skin cracked like dried pastry.
The demon mask he had worn was shattered beyond recognition, nowhere to be seen.
By holding onto Harmonization for more than seven and a half minutes—rather than releasing it all at once—
His body had been unable to withstand the strain, and his qi vessels and flesh had suffered severe damage.
Thud.
At last, he dropped to one knee, spitting out a thick clot of blood from his mouth.
Blood continued to rise in his throat as if from internal injuries, and his body felt as heavy as waterlogged cotton.
'My Internal Energy...'
Bu Eun-seol attempted to circulate his True Qi, but it was as if his Internal Energy had been completely sealed—he couldn't sense anything at all.
The Power of Harmony, which twisted his Qi Vessels and robbed him of consciousness with just a single use—
He had wrapped himself in that power for over half a quarter of an hour just to survive the collapsing mechanism.
There was no way his body could remain unscathed.
Fortunately, thanks to the power of the Water Spirit Energy and Thunder Essence Divine Qi, he hadn't lost consciousness or suffered complete bodily destruction.
But his Internal Power, the Two Spirit Energies within him, even the forces of the Orthodox, Unorthodox, Demonic, and Buddhist Arts—all of them had been temporarily sealed.
Clench.
Bu Eun-seol tightened his fist.
He had prided himself on reaching a higher realm, yet a single exertion of power had sealed all the forces within him?
"I still have far to go."
Though his expression was one of despair, the reality was entirely different.
In the history of Murim, there had never been anyone his age who had reached the complete Extreme Heaven Realm.
Moreover, the Power of Harmony he had just wielded was closer to a phenomenon that only those in the Martial Extreme Realm could manifest.
He had accomplished something unprecedented—wielding transcendent power without even reaching the Martial Extreme Realm.
Yet, unaware of this fact, he still lamented his own inadequacy.
"First, I need to get out."
With weakened steps, Bu Eun-seol moved to leave.
Then, abruptly, he spotted a single black demon mask amidst the ruins.
It was one of the masks worn by the Black-Faced Lions earlier.
"..."
Though this place had collapsed, he had no way of knowing the situation outside.
Just in case, Bu Eun-seol picked up the black mask and placed it over his face.
Step. Step.
As he ascended the stairs, leaving the ruined wreckage behind, the hellish gate that had been tightly shut earlier now stood wide open.
With dull eyes, Bu Eun-seol wiped the blood from his lips and slowly stepped inside.
"...!"
His weary eyes widened slightly at the sight before him.
Amidst the desolate landscape, numerous swords stood embedded in the ground.
The Sword Tomb.
Astonishingly, even amidst the collapse, the Sword Tomb had not been completely destroyed.
Across the open expanse of this broad hill, swords of all kinds were planted—some intact, others shattered or buried beneath the wreckage.
'As I thought... The Heavenly Human Cult created the Sword Tomb to awaken demon swords.'
Thick, viscous blood flowed through the ruined Sword Tomb like underground veins—blood that had been pumped from the mechanisms below.
They had constructed three gates, forcing martial artists to slaughter one another and detonate their Killing Intent.
All to draw out the blood of Murim warriors driven mad by bloodshed.
'It really is a demon sword.'
Bu Eun-seol pulled one of the swords from the tomb.
The blades remaining in the ruined Sword Tomb were all bloodthirsty demon swords, their numbers beyond counting.
'At this scale, there must have originally been hundreds of demon swords.'
Judging by the traces left throughout the Sword Tomb, most of the demon swords had already been taken.
Whether they had been drawn by past martial artists who entered or reclaimed by the Heavenly Human Cult after the collapse—he couldn't tell.
'They needed that many sacrifices just to awaken so many demon swords.'
Awakening a demon sword required specific conditions. Some demanded the blood of children, others the blood of pure maidens.
But most demon swords craved the blood of martial artists with Internal Power—especially those tainted by madness.
That was why they had opened the Sword Tomb.
To lure in third-rate martial artists—
Those who never trained their Spirit and Mind.
Those who, even in death, would have no one to mourn them.
Step. Step.
The Sword Tomb was vast. After walking for some time, a massive, wide-open gate came into view in the distance.
And along the path leading to that gate, corpses were piled like mountains—brutally slaughtered.
Not just martial artists, but also those who appeared to be apostles of the Heavenly Human Cult.
'They haven't been dead long. And...'
Their bodies still retained warmth, yet their skin had taken on an eerie, ashen hue.
'There's no blood.'
Moreover, not a single drop of blood remained in their bodies—as if it had all been drained.
'Could it be...'
Just as Bu Eun-seol, puzzled, moved to inspect the corpses—
Step. Step.
A shadow emerged from beyond the gate, stepping into the Sword Tomb.
Their hair was disheveled, their entire body drenched in blood.
And in their right hand, they gripped a sword that emitted a black fog.
It was Cheon Hwa-in.
Ssshhhk—
But then, something strange happened.
With an ordinary sword, the blood staining the blade would normally drip to the ground.
Yet the blood on the sword in Cheon Hwa-in's hand was slowly absorbed into the blade, vanishing as if being swallowed whole.
'So it really is the Blood of a Thousand People.'
A demon sword—the Blood of a Thousand People.
What Cheon Hwa-in held was none other than the legendary demon sword passed down through generations in Murim.